London Pants and Giveaway!

I'm super excited about this! I've got a great giveaway lined up for you! 

 

 I was recently able to test a pattern for Petite Kids Boutique--the London Pants.

 

 

 

 This pattern is for both girls and boys from size 12m to 8y and has so many neat little details that it was a blast to make!

 

 

I made a size 2 for my daughter. (And, I'm working on a size 3 for one of my boys.)

 

 

The brown fabric is from the second hand store--it's, I think a type of twill-ish fabric. I have no idea what it actually is. Ha, I had thought I had grabbed my linen only to find that it was still on the bottom of the stack, un-cut. And, the contrast fabric is a quilting cotton I received from a friend. I'm not sure where it's from or what it's called but it's cute.

 

The cute star buttons come out of bag of mixed buttons from Walmart.

 

It fits great--no adjusting needed at all and that is pretty good for my skinny girl! Plus, she'll be able to wear them for years lengthwise--just unroll the cuff.

I'd highly recommend this pattern for anyone with skinny kids.

And, now for the awesome giveaway!

 

Wong from Petite Kids Boutique has agreed to give away a copy of the London Pants pattern! It is brand new--just up for sale!  

 

 

To enter, be or become a follower of my blog and leave a comment telling me your favourite pattern in the Petite Kids Boutique shop!

The giveaway will close on the 12th of October.
**Giveaway now closed**

 

New Medium

 

In a week or so I'm hoping to teach a quick sewing class to the girls in our homeschool group. I am nervous! I have never taught a class before and I'm trying to think of a cool project to do in two hours after giving them the low-down of the sewing machine. In my quest to find a project for them, I turned to the book, Improv Sewing.

 

 

There are a lot of super neat, quick projects in here. But, I chose to give the Custom-Stitched Card and Envelope a try.

 

 

Three tries actually. One card is just boring on its own. Two is an incomplete. But, three is a perfect set.

 

 

This is one of the first times I've sewn on paper. And, I like it. Not as much as I like sewing on fabric--I still really like the feel of the fabric in my hand as something emerges from my sewing machine. But paper is neat.

 

I'm thinking because of the need to decrease the amount of pressure on the presser foot, I won't be able to do exactly this for the girls. I may need to practise some more and play around a bit more with my machine--using normal presser foot pressure for the curves.

If you're interested in these, I did add them to my shop--I don't often send cards--I actually forget to send cards most of the time. So, they're up for grabs there for $7 for the set.

If you've never visited my shop, go have a look! There is a giveaway (and auction) for 20% off any one item in my shop going on hosted by Little Dragonfly Boutique.

Raw-Edged Raglan Round-Up

I'm quite excited about this--have you seen the amazing prizes?!

 

 



 Anyway, I have been sewing from the book 'Sewing for Boys' all year--ever since I won the book from Novita at Very Purple Person.

One of my absolute favourite patterns to whip up from this book is the Raw-Edged Raglan Tee.

It is super simple, and so easy to embellish--all of the ones I have made, I've added an applique to them. And, with three of the four, I've used contrasting fabric for the sleeves and neckband.

 

 

They make great baby gifts although the smallest size is a 2/3. Amazingly enough, that is all I've used them for yet! I think I should sew up a couple for my boys...

 

Most of the patterns (there are 24 projects) do run a bit wide in the book but they are quite cute anyway--just have to remember that especially with my skinny kids! Although, having tried these on my kids, these do fit nicely.

 

 

 

Nursing Covers

 

I recently decided to add nursing covers to my shop on Facebook.

So, I had to get sewing and finished one. I'm quite excited about this and I'm hoping there'll be some interest!

 

 

This one is a 3-panel nursing cover made with Sunny Daze, from left to right, circle pink, stripes orange, and flowers orange. I bought them awhile ago from Fabric.com. I made a nursing cover for my SIL from the blue colorway here. 

 

They will all have an adjustable strap and boning so you can watch your little one nurse. No more blankets getting yanked off--that was always my biggest fear when nursing in public with just a receiving blanket.



 

And, to keep the back looking professional with the three panels, I did french seams.

 

So, if you're interested in one, hop over to the shop!

I may or may not do custom orders--I do after all have 4 kids under five!

It'll just depend how my week looks at the time, and how my experiences with custom orders go--I've only done a couple of custom orders and those were all for family!

Another Raw Edge Raglan and Some Nests

And, I've made another Raw Edged Raglan from the book, 'Sewing for Boys.' This is such a fun, easy project! It is perfect for baby gifts except for the fact the smallest size is a 2/3. But, by a year you run out of gifted clothes usually anyway, so a shirt here or there that is bigger is often welcome. At least it was so with me!

 

The fabrics I used are a bluish grey interlock from the second hand store and an orange organic cotton jersey knit from Fabric.com. 

 

I added a neat applique--I found a cute whale picture that I just couldn't resist. Plus, add two buttons for the eye and it looks pretty neat. (I know, I have this thing with doubling up the buttons--if you see my last post you'll know what I mean!)

 

 

I really like the raw-edges on the outside. It adds a lot of character to the shirt--the extra top-stitching and texture!

 

 

And, another shot of my whale with his double-button eye!

 

 

The kids and I had some fun taking apart some bird's nests the other day. The birds have basically all left for warmer regions or they're working on it since fall is in the air. So, the nests are empty and they (we) had a lot of fun checking out how different these two nests were!

 

This top one came out of the bird house we were given this spring. It had a rotten egg in it (which one of the kids crushed inside the house because he wanted to see what was inside--smelly!) And, when we took it apart further, there was a dead dried out corpse of a bird in it.

 

This other nest was glued with mud to the side of the goat shed. It is definitely amazing how intricately they are put together and how God has made each bird build it's own type of nest that is just right for them! What an awesome God!



Sunday Outfit

My daughter's Sunday shirt is getting too short and it's a summery shirt. So, of course, I had to sew a new one! I pulled out my Jalie 2805 pattern again. I made two other versions here. That is what I love about this and other Jalie patterns--most of them can be made from size 2 toddlers all the way up to size super big for women! How they do it, I do not know, but it works!

 

 

I had some issues sewing since I wasn't paying enough attention and sewed one of the arms on with the wrong sides facing. And, to get that coverstitch unstitched in this fabric--whew! I'm surprised it turned out as it did--the edges of that fabric were mutilated!

The fabric is a knit from Fabric.com: Turquoise Stretch Ottoman Knit. I also used it for the arms of this shirt here. The applique is still from my Rhapsodia fat quarter bundle. It has been used a number of times, here and here.

 

 

Of course, I could NOT just leave it plain--it needed some girliness. So, a flower applique it was, with some buttons for the center. I really like adding little details like this--it makes it look so much more professional.

 

 

It'll work perfectly with her ruffle skirt! Add some tights and she has a winter outfit for Church!

 

Ha, and on a totally different note:

 

 

Quite the beast of a carrot!

Yes, this does mean that I got the carrots out of the garden and a bunch of them canned! This one was one for the canner--it won't last long in the cold room on account of all those projections.

 

Have a good weekend and a blessed Sunday!

 

 

Still here...

I am still alive. Honestly!

I have just been super, super busy the last couple of weeks.

 

We first went camping for a couple of days followed by my sister's wedding.

 

The next week, I canned.

46 quarts of apple juice,

7 quarts of apple pie filling, and I'm not sure how many pint jars of pickles--there's 60 down there right now--a couple left from last year.

I believe there's around 30 some jars of beans.

 

 

And, I still have to do the beets--that is on my to-do list today.

And, maybe the carrots as well....(not today though--they're still in the ground)

 

We had to take the potatoes and beets out of the garden rather suddenly--we had a major hail storm that demolished the plants.

 

 

 

The kids enjoyed the aftermath!

Thankfully the potatoes and beets are underground. The carrots actually look pretty good yet--that's why they're still in the garden.

 

 

 

To top it all off, we have started home schooling last week and it takes some time to get a good routine. Especially since this is the first time ever for me for homeschooling. It is slightly overwhelming! But, already there is some progress.

 

 

We bought a new coffee table...

 

 

To store our homeschooling books.

 

 

 And, we had fun becoming Vikings!